Mel Gibson has credited Ireland and its people for the role they played in the making of Oscar winning hit, Braveheart.
The Hollywood actor who directed, produced and starred in the movie, said that the success of Braveheart could not have been made possible "anywhere else". Gibson was speaking about the movie in Trim, as part of a series of events to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Braveheart.
Despite its primarily Scottish setting, Braveheart was mainly filmed in several Irish locations, including, Kildare, Wicklow and Meath, which provided the landscape for many of the movie's medieval scenes.
Regarding production, Mel Gibson said that Ireland was "very hospitable".
"[There were] battalions of talented actors, actresses, all the extras help that, you know, local people from the town [who] put on the wig and the outfit, and they were all in here doing their best", Gibson said. "They were all pretty good. There was no f***** in the crowd, you know".
"But honestly, from the ground up, even, like camera assistants, focus pullers, guys that never really got a shot before, a big shot, where all of a sudden they were in positions and they had to achieve cinematic excellence, and they they were up for the task, and they did it".
Gibson went on to outline other features that made Ireland such an attractive place to film in.
"We initially went to Scotland, and of course, it was fantastic. And we filmed for six weeks in Scotland. And, it did everything we wanted it to. I mean, Ben Nevis [Mountain], you know, fits perfectly in the frame. And we got a lot of great stuff there.
"But, unfortunately for the big battle scenes, the ground in Scotland wasn't as horse friendly as here, so you had more horses, and the ground was friendlier to the horses.
"We were fortunate, at the time, the Minister of Arts and Culture was Michael D. Higgins. He opened up the doors for us and said, hey, we got good ground, we got horses, we got the reserve army, and they were all within proximity.
"So, that was a great help in achieving what we had to achieve. And we achieved it, I think, thanks to Ireland and the open arms to bring us in and make things easy for us creatively [and] in every other way", he added. "We wouldn't have been able to do it anywhere else".
